Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Our third day, Wednesday, in TX we were in McAllen, Texas we traveled over to Mission and went to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. We hadn't even gotten parked and we spotted a pair of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks! (LIFER) These are some neat birds! 

And it was raining off and on throughout the day!

When we got there around 8am it was pouring! Very odd for down there! A park attendant told us it hadn't rained like that in over six months! They needed the rain. So we weren't upset about the rain, just dealt with it.

We rented some bicycles and right away we spotted the Buff-bellied Hummingbird.(LIFER) (We now have all but 3 hummingbirds ABA code 1&2. The other 3 are Violet-crowned, Rufous, and Lucifer.)

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Next we went back in front of the entrance because I thought I was a Painted Bunting fly into a tree. We didn't find it but we did find an Olive Sparrow! (LIFER)

 We started into the park on our bikes! Next stop was the first feeding station. When we first got there all the birds must have heard us coming, because there all the feeders were empty.

Plain Chachalaca

It started to rain more so we got under the picnic area and waited. Before long we spotted a White-tipped Dove, Plain Chachalaca, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Green Jay and Great Kistadee even made an appearance! All LIFER birds for us!

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Watching them at the feeders I was surprised that the Great-tailed Grackles scare away the Plain Chachalacas! They are almost the same size, but they don’t like the grackles!

Green Jay

On the other side of the road was another set of feeders and I spotted the Bronzed Cowbird! Wow, what an awesome bird! (LIFER) So small compared to the Great-tailed Grackles at the same feeder!

Great-tailed Grackles

We also saw Northern Mockingbird, Great-tailed Grackle, and red-winged Blackbirds at the feeders.

Bronzed Cowbird

White-tipped Dove

The rain had let up so we biked up to the Hawk Watch Tower. Unfortunately due to the rain they were not having the hawk watch that day. But we did spot some Couch’s Kingbird (LIFER) on the way down there. Once on the hawk tower there was a little pond that had a few different ducks and shorebirds.

Down in the pond we saw Green Heron, Wilson’s Phalarope, Greater Yellowlegs, Black-necked Stilt, Blue-winged Teal and Mottled Duck (LIFER).

Even with the rain we had already gotten 11 Lifers!

There was a path going into the park farther and actually ended up at the Rio Grande River! It wasn't pretty at all! There were water jugs, trash, and rafts! Oh my! That was a little for real for me! We didn't see any border patrol down there or any illegals, thankfully! We didn't see any Observation Deck like the map said so we headed back and the trail was actually a little long! But we got back to our bikes around noon and headed for the Kistadee trail.

On the trail they had a bird blind! There we didn't see any Great Kistadee, but we did see some more Green Jays, Plain Chachalaca, and White-tipped Doves. Along with some Northern Cardinals! (My favorite bird)

After not seeing too much at that feeding station we headed over to the next one. There was the usually and then we got a few new birds too. Black-crested Titmouse (new for the year) made an appearance and also spotted a female Painted Bunting (LIFER)!

That's a total of 12 LIFERS for the day!

We started to head back to the first feeders and didn't see anything new, so we headed back and returned the bikes.

The bikes were more enjoyable then I thought they would be.

While we were there we noticed all the lower plant life was dead, and that was due to a flood from 2010 that lasted a few months.

The next blog will be about Thursday(April 27th) and the start of the Fallout!! :)

Wyoming Rest Area MM 401

Lazuli Bunting

I know I’m so far behind in our Texas reports but they are coming! I’m almost finished going through all the pictures!! Finally! Didn’t think I’d ever get them done! Here’s a report about our hiking!

Lark Sparrow

Today we stopped off at Wyoming rest area on I-80 MM 401. They have a little nature trail. So we grabbed our camera and hit the trail! The first thing we spotted was a Lazuli Bunting! Another Lifer!! We then left the trail in hopes of getting another shot of him.

Then we saw a Gray Catbird, Western Kingbirds, Violet-green Swallow, Lark Sparrow and Gray-blue Gnatcatchers during our hike. It was a very nice hike. Love going and exploring places like that. 

Two pictures stitched together.

High Island Birding

Black-throated Green Warbler

Our Texas trip was fabulous!! We got 50 lifers!! I've decided to do a post per area we were down there so this post will be on High Island, Texas Monday and Tuesday. (April 22,23 I know I'm so slow at doing this blog!!)

Summer Tanager

Monday afternoon we got into Houston, got a rental car, and we headed out to High Island and made our way to Smith Oaks Sanctuary. At the parking area there was a crowd of people searching the tree branches for birds. We later found out the group of trees by the parking area is a bird favorite. Right away we spotted a Black-throated Green Warbler. That was our first lifer! Those were abundant at the parking lot!

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

We also spotted our next lifer; Scarlet Tanager, in the trees. There was also Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Orioles, Summer Tanager, Indigo Bunting, Red-eyed Vireo and Eastern Kingbird. Just to name a few.

Next we headed for the trail. Having never been there we were impressed by the platforms at the Heron nesting island. Very nice for photographers.

Neotropic Cormorants playing with a stick.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

We spotted a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron right away, but we didn't see any adults. There was Neotropic and Double-crested Cormorants building and laying on nest. Roseatte Spoonbills, Snowy, and Great Egrets also nesting there. Very nice photo opportunity. We even saw a few American Alligators and a Prothonotary Warbler. A few of the Great Egrets had chicks, they were so cute!! The Purple Gallinule below was also a lifer!!

Great Egret feeding chicks

Purple Gallinule

American Alligator

After we got done there we headed to the beach and saw some shorebirds. A few Sanderlings, Black-bellied Plovers, Western Sandpiper and Willets.

Ruddy Turnstone

Wilson's Plover

Sanderling Searching for Food

Willet in Flight

On Tuesday we got up extra early and head back to High Island. Our first stop was Boy Scout Woods. They have a nice setup by a water dip with bleachers. We didn't see anything right away so we had our way around the trails walked out to the marsh. We didn't really see anything except Tanagers, Buntings, and Catbirds. So we headed back to the drip and picked up a few more lifers!

We saw Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Worm-eating Warbler both of those were LIFERS! We also saw North Parula, Black-and-white Warbler, Brown Thrasher, Rudy-throated Hummingbird, White-throated Sparrow, and Northern Waterthrush at the drip.

We left the drip and went across the road to the tower, before going up we checked out what was going on on the ground. Not much but Simon found a Eastern Garter Snake.

Simon with a snake

We then when up the Tower; which is a little wobbly. >.< Once up there we sawTennessee Warbler, Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Snowy Egret preening

Roseatte Spoonbill

After lunch we headed for the beach again, but this time we went down much farther. We saw a flock of about 40 Brown Pelicans and a mixture of terns. We picked up Sandwich Tern, Least Tern, Royal Tern, Forester's Tern, Caspian Tern, and Common Tern.We drove down the beach some more and spotted some Royal Terns mating!

Brown Pelicans

Reddish Egret

Royal Terns

After watching a Reddish Egret feed and doing its prance we headed back to Houston and prepared for the long drive to McAllen.

 Next blog will be about Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park in Mission, Texas!

Spring Migration

Well we had a few delays, got held up by snow and road closures in Wyoming. But we made it through safe and sound. We have one more load to deliver this weekend and them one Monday after we rent the car we will be off on our birding adventure!

Tuesday we will be at High Island all day! Maybe swing up to Anahuac NWR to see if we can pick up the Ruff. A female was spotted there the other day! Once we are done birding on Tuesday we plan to drive overnight to McAllen, Texas where we will be staying until Friday, while we bird the World Bird Center sites.

Friday we plan to bird the Brownsville and South Padre Island areas until Monday. Then we will be heading back to Houston area where we will get back in our truck get back on the road.

I look forward to sharing my travels with you and hope you all enjoy the pictures I get next week!!

Have a super weekend!

Texas Here We Come!!

Sorry,  I haven't posted in over a MONTH!!! WOW! We just haven't seen to many birds nice our last trip out.We did add a few to our year list. In Indiana we saw Common Grackle and Trumpeter Swans. We got a chance to go through Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in Ohio not too much action yet but we saw Carolina Wren, American Tree Sparrow, Mute Swan, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Greater Scaup. In Connecticut we stopped off at a rest area that happened to have feeders and saw Downy Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse and White-breasted Nuthatch. That has brought us up to 166 for 2013 and our Lifer List is up to 394.

Our next trip is for a week around the end of this week and we plan to start at High Island, TEXAS!!!! And work our way down to south Texas!! Places such as South Padre Island, Brownsville and over to McAllen. Also plan on doing some shelling and maybe a birding boat trip, if time is available.

I've done a little research and it looks like we could see as many as 108 LIFERS!!! But realistically I'm only hoping for 50. Simon thinks that's too high he says around 30. I guess we will see who the better guesser is! But it's all up to the birds and how this migration plays out.

Let me break it down for you!
108 birds (that would be Lifers)
121 resident birds (Only in Texas, summer in Texas, or that are not migratory birds)
23 code 3, 4, or 5 birds
87 Migratory Birds

Hopefully we will have some luck down there. If you know of any hot spots please feel free to let us know!
Wish us luck!!!

A Day of Birding Fun!!

Ring-necked Duck

Abert's Towhee

  On Wednesday my husband and I were traveling through Tuscon, AZ and thought we'd check out Sweetwater Wetlands. Sadly they were doing their annual burn and were closed for the day. We talked to the guy down by the gate at Sweetwater and he suggested for us to check out Roger Road WRF down the road, so we walked down there and headed over to the two small ponds that had a bunch of ducks. The first one had a few Mallards, Ring-necked Ducks and American Coots. We saw some Gila Woodpeckers along with some Lesser Goldfinches and a Abert's Towhee.

Harris's Hawk

Before we left we spotted this cute pair of Mourning Doves. After leaving there we headed back to our truck and saw a pair of Harris's Hawks! Got some nice shots of those!

Mourning Doves

On Thursday we joined up with my aunt and her bf! We headed over to Sweetwater Wetlands and the bird activity was down a little bit probably from the burn the day before. 

Burrowing Owls

These Burrowing Owls were spotted at Casa Grande,  AZ where we were getting our trailer unloaded. Always nice seeing these owls there!

Burrowing Owl

The first bird we saw was of course a House Sparrow! Never a shortness of those! We headed over to the first pond and spotted some Northern Shovelers and Coots.

Northern Shoveler Male

Northern Shoveler

A close relative of the American Coot is the Common Gallinule, its biggest field mark is the red shield and beak instead of white beak on the American Coot. We hardly ever see this species so it was a delight to see so many yesterday.

Common Gallinule

Great-tailed Grackle

Next we came to another pond and spotted some Blue-winged Teals, American Wigeons (Doing a breeding bobbing of their heads), and a Pied-billed Grebe preening.

American Wigeons

Pied-billed Grebe

Blue-winged Teal

The next birds we found were a Black Phoebe and Ruddy Ducks. One Ruddy Duck in particular was protecting a female from all the other males and another female, whenever they got too close. It was very interesting to see him charge the others in the water.

Ruddy Duck

After leaving there we headed to Saguaro National Park just east of Tuscon. Sadly I didn't bring my short lens to take llandscape shots just had my 500mm lens. We saw a few birds there too, not as many as I thought would be there. Gila Woodpecker was plentiful. Also saw Cactus Wren, Pyrrhuloxia and my husband almost stepped on a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. It hissed and slithered away rattling its tail. Couldn't find it again after it went under a bush.

Pyrrhuloxia

A Few More Parks in California

Cattle Egret

Well since we were unable to get into Buckley Cove Park on Monday because of our lack of cash, we headed out there only because Greater White-fronted Geese were spotted there. But once we got in there we only saw crows, sparrows, Cattle Egrets, and juncos. So that was a little disappointing mostly since it cost us 2.50!

Green Heron

So we headed north on the I-5 and turned on highway 12 and found a park (can't remember the name if it) but there we saw a White-tailed Kite, a Green Heron, and a Snowy Egret. 

Snowy Egret

Below are those pictures. Simon was so focused on taking the Green Heron photos that he actually walked right by the White-tailed Kite perched on top of a leaf-less tree. I was out on a dock watching the Green Heron and I looked up and saw the Kite. I tried to get Simon's attention and was just going to point to the Kite, but he paid no attention to me. He thought I was going to scare the heron away if I talked, but I was only going to point. I have before spoken to loudly and scared a bird or two away. But I really wanted to get a good shot of this Kite! So I started walking over to where the Kite was and also keeping an eye on Simon and finally he looked at me and I pointed to the raptor! He got some really good shots of it with his 650mm lens. I had the 500mm lens and couldn't seem to get focused in on the eye. So I'm sharing Simon's shot of the White-tailed Kite.

White-tailed Kite

After we got done there we were headed back to our car and saw the park manager looking at our car to see if we had a sticker. We didn't even see the pay station but he didn't make us pay and he even gave us some places to check out in the area. That is how we found Cosumnes River Preserve.

Northern Pintails

Once we arrived we saw the pond covered in Great White-fronted Geese, American Wigeons, Northern Shovelers and Coots. We got to snapping and we also saw a Great-tailed Grackle. We then headed over to the boardwalk and continued on to the walk around the river.

American Wigeon

We heard wrens, but couldn't seen any, except one that popped up on a tree branch while we were searching for a Common Yellowthroat to resurface. It never did. Lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Spotted Towhees. Northern Pintails in a slough feeding. All males though didn't see any females. Black-necked Stilts, more Coots and Mallards. We came across this beautiful Great Blue Heron and I got a great portrait shot! Then we got a frontal shot of his beautiful beard!

We then went down a little bit more and came to the river got a shot of the railroad bridge and headed back.

On the way back we witnessed 3 Mallards. Two males and one female. First one of the males chased the female off and was chasing her then all three were flying in circles over the slough. They did this about three times. Beautiful show! I'm not sure but I"m guessing its got something to do with mating.

One last bird we saw was the Bushtit. Got some slightly blurry shots of them. We had a lot of fun this last week while out birding and sightseeing! Hope to do it again soon, but now we are headed to eastern PA and it's gonna be COLD and SNOWY....I'm not looking forward to it at all!!

Bushtit

Northern Shovelers

Greater White-fronted Geese